Four Pins and Counting

My Starbucks hat pin count is up to four and more are on the way. Over the past two weeks I've gotten three more pins to stick in my hat. It doesn't mean that I get a raise, and I don't get anything special; all it means is that I'm doing a great and that's how we get recognized is by getting pins to put in our hats, and thats exciting for me.

Tonight Leo saved my life or he may have been trying to save his own, but I'd like to think he was saving mine. The four of us (Leo, Jesse, Pooh Bear [yes that's one of our friends here] and I) we sitting at the house playing Scattegories. We heard some noises outside that sounded like gunshots but we also thought they could have been fireworks. Leo and I peeked outside our window, but we didn't see anybody and we hadn't heard anything for a minute or two, so we opened the door and stepped outside we then heard a few more shots coming from the other side of a fence that divides our neighborhood from another one. Leo wanted to go over and have a look, because we know some of the kids that live over there and we wanted to make sure they were okay. All of a sudden we hear about six really loud bangs and a these screeching sounds coming form over the fence and they startled me but Leo grabbed hold of me and pulled me in the house and in front of him and him pulling me back scared me even more that the bangs. We really had nothing to worry about though because it was just a bunch of fireworks. Then after my nerves straightened up again I looked at Leo and said, “are you protecting yourself or saving me?” Jesse and Pooh Bear thought it was hilarious. I on the other hand am not up for becoming a human shield. Ephesians 6 talks about a Shield of Faith not a shield of Travis. Praise the Lord for fireworks, they were actually very nice.

A Christmas journey and then some more

I'm back in the blogosphere. Does anyone know where that term came from the blogosphere? It's a strange term. I realized a few days ago that the last blog that I posted was on a down note about the Christmas season and that's not fun to see over and over again. Here is a quick (I say “quick” now and it could be a lie) update on that things that have happened since I last blogged. I spent Christmas at the Adam's house with Mrs. Shirley Adams, Phil, Nicole, Daniel, Chris, and Baby D. We decided to open our gifts at twelve o'clock rather than wait till morning. That gave us more time to eat breakfast and relax until lunch/dinner. Rather than having a traditional Christmas meal with a turkey or ham and all the side dishes that go with it we went to a Chinese buffet so we made someone else do the cooking for us. I stuffed myself till there was no room left and was still (amazingly enough) full later that night. On Christmas night I began the rest of my journey and I hopped on a bus and headed south for the rest of Christmas. I never thought a bus would be full on Christmas day.

After eighteen hours of almost no sleep I got to open even more Christmas presents and see my parents and there new house and I'm starting to wonder if there is something to the fact that every time I have gone to see them for the past three Christmas' they have been in a different house. I watched a ton of football and ESPN, so I got my sports fix. I also go to see a bunch of friends from camp that I hadn't seen in a long time during the young adult retreat at Camp Keystone. I got my dad's old laptop which isn't set up for wireless Internet and for some reason I can't plug it up to our high-speed at the community house, and the screen freaks out every ten minutes that can get annoying. I spent the last few days of my break in Tampa with the Riefers I go to eat Cheez Its hang out with Gabe and Jaime and Mama Riefer and watch even more football. Then I got on a bus and headed north again. A twenty two hour trip this time (a five hour layover in Jacksonville). I'm still not a fan of the bus. Eventually I ended up back in Charlotte and back at my home Jesse and Leo came back home and we quickly got back to work, but not before seeing the Florida Gators dismantle the Ohio State Buckeyes in the BCS National Championship 41-14. That was a beautiful thing to see...for me.

Shortly after that we hit up ROOTS '07. We had the privileged of hearing Aaron White speak and Graham Kendrick and his band led worship and it was powerful. The theme was dance upon injustice and by the last night everyone was dancing and we tore down the injustice sign and danced on it as a sign of things that were happening in The Salvation Army. I was blessed to be able to stay with the officers in 614 Birmingham and it great hearing about there ministry and spending time with there family. After Roots we headed back home and went back to work again both in the neighborhood and at Starbucks. So here we are there is a lot of other things that are happening but that will come in a later blog. I knew this wouldn't be a short blog, but I did try.